University's success draws motivated students

IRVINE - Its academic reputation is so stellar that parents emigrating from other countries move into its attendance boundaries to guarantee a spot for their child.

Parents in Irvine who live outside its boundaries try desperately to get their children in, creating a waiting list every year.

University High School, or "Uni" as it's affectionately known, consistently attracts some of the best and brightest students in the world, many of them guided there by committed parents who strongly value public education and academic success.

"It feeds on itself," said English teacher Jeanne Jelnick, who has been at the school for the past 24 years. "When parents started hearing in the mid '80s that we were a strong school, it started drawing people to the area. It's part of the culture at Uni, and it's unusual."

University High sits opposite UC Irvine in the heart of a city known for its top-notch public schools. It's the oldest and most highly regarded of Irvine's four public high schools, and it consistently earns its reputation through award-winning academic competition teams, dozens of National Merit Finalists each year, and top-notch arts and music programs.

University is not a magnet school or a charter school; in fact, virtually all students live within its attendance boundaries, and the only way for a student at another Irvine Unified school to transfer into the school is if a University student transfers out.

The school consists of a collection of one-story, tan-brick buildings spread out across 55 grassy acres in a mostly residential enclave of Irvine's Turtle Rock community. The school's motto is "Unity through diversity" - reflecting its multicultural student body and its role as host to a county program for about 115 deaf and hearing-impaired students.

The concentration of academically talented students has created a highly competitive environment.

"There are so many intelligent kids in your class that the teacher can't give everyone an A, so it's about striving for the good grade," said 17-year-old senior Jacob Choi, who will attend Vanderbilt University this fall. "But the competition definitely causes you to strive for excellence - it's not a negative environment."

While the school's curriculum is designed to appeal to all students, including those less academically inclined, tremendous resources have been invested into helping the best and brightest excel, Principal John Pehrson said.

Classes are taught at a higher intellectual level than average, and teachers are encouraged to constantly find ways to challenge their top students.

"My teachers are able to go way beyond the standards and have really engaging activities and discussions in class," Pehrson said. "It's a cycle - the kids allow the teachers to go deeper, and the teacher trains the kids to be better thinkers. It gets to the point where there's no limit to what the kids can learn and do."

The competitive environment also encourages average and struggling students to achieve at higher levels.

Parents know they can count on University's staff to prepare every student to be successful and competitive in the next chapter of life, said parent Rita Lakhanpal, 52, who has a junior at the school and an older son who is now getting his M.D. and Ph.D. through a Cal Tech/UCLA program.

"The focus has always been to maintain a very high standard for the students," said Lakhanpal, PTSA president at University. "It's the school everyone wants to be at."